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What do you think? Looking at the political spectrum with socialism on the left and nationalist fascism on the right, which political party in the U.S. is closet to the extreme? John McCain has decided on a somewhat desperate strategy of calling Obama a socialist, but it appears to me that the Republican party of today is dangerously close to relgious, nationalist fascism--and has one foot firmly planted in the fascist ideology by tilting right to appease the right wing of the party.
So, where is the political center in 2008? And which party is more extreme?
What do you think? Looking at the political spectrum with socialism on the left and nationalist fascism on the right, which political party in the U.S. is closet to the extreme? John McCain has decided on a somewhat desperate strategy of calling Obama a socialist, but it appears to me that the Republican party of today is dangerously close to relgious, nationalist fascism--and has one foot firmly planted in the fascist ideology by tilting right to appease the right wing of the party.
So, where is the political center in 2008? And which party is more extreme?
socialism always wasnt on the left as you imply, the democrats who were tied to strom thurmond, jesse helms and even before there time were conservative democrats and southern democrats were majority conservative except for the likes of FDR
By the standards of democratic politics in developed countries generally, the US political parties are rather conservative. The Republican Party is one of the most conservative major parties in any developed country while the Democratic Party would be considered rather moderate in most developed democracies. Furthermore, one has to recognize that the two viable political parties in the US are huge simply because it's a two-party system; each party tries to represent approximately half the US electorate. This means that there is a huge amount of ideological variation between the left and right wing of EACH party. Each party definitely has its extremists.
One thing I would like to comment on is the way the term 'socialism' is being thrown around both here and in the election. Socialism is a notoriously ambiguous term covering a broad swath of diverse ideological views. Furthermore, the term has an especially negative connotation in the US as compared to most developed countries (where many mainstream parties exist that include the term in their name). In fact, the vast majority of Americans are in favor of at least some socialist programs. Social security, welfare, medicare, medicaid, public education... all can be legitimately construed as socialist. In fact, every single developed country has at least some socialist programs; most economists and development experts would tell you that some policies which could be construed as 'socialist' in one way or another are absolutely critical to sustainable economic development. Most European countries are far, far more 'socialist' than the US. Many have higher standards of living, lower income inequality, better education and more accessible healthcare as well. Any modern, developed economy is going to include government involvement in certain socially-oriented sectors. In moving to the left, the US is simply converging towards policies favored in most successful developed countries.
Took the quiz. I ended up being in the direct center of liberal.
80% personal issues score, 20% economic issues score.
No idea what it means.
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